House of Pain

131 Days, Book 2

By: Keith C. Blackmore

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Strength. Honor. Death.

Once every year, in the city of Sunja, gladiators meet within the arena known as Sunja’s Pit. Some men enter for the lure of fortune, some for the fame, and some simply for the fight. The games continue for days until a champion is finally crowned.

Or until all involved perish.

The warriors comprising the House of Ten begin training under punishing mentors and a drink-loving taskmaster. Within the city of Sunja itself, Borchus works to establish a network of spies to aid the newly formed house’s cause. A vengeful Halm hunts down Skulljigger for bloody retribution. And house master Goll realizes one of his pit fighters possesses potential beyond everyone’s expectations.

All the while, shadowy elements conspire to make the Ten’s opening matches upon the sands also their last.

This is blood sport at its finest. At its worst. At its longest.

©2014 Keith C. Blackmore (P)2019 Podium Publishing

Bloody Adventures

What an awesome book filled with action from the arena & a good story re hated foes from competing houses. Plenty of action. Especially loved the drill instructor old McClan. What a crusty & tough DI with a great sense of a biting sarcastic albeit hilarious sense of humour loaded with one liners. John Lee is the perfect narrator, fantastic.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

memorable characters

Great continuation of the series as the free trained gladiators form their house of Ten and figure out how to win by fair means and foul. Loved the humor in the training scenes - the squats competition was perfection. Highly recommended.

Bloody Good!!

It's rare that a second book is nearly as good as the 1st but this one lives up. Great narration. Can't wait to listen to #3.

Another amazing story

Love this series can't wait to read the next book great story and series

Great narrator, average story

As always, great narrator. Not the best story of the series.. Pigknot's twist unnecessary, and almost too strange that Halm would be that troubled by his dilemma with the father/son thing.

Great Story

Great story and the narrator is FANTASTIC. Worth listening to it. Loved the various voices.

Incredible Sequel

Loved the first one. Found the second one even better. I'm going to get book 3 right now!

Good continuation

Good story and great fights. Brings in the world around the pits and the intrigue.

Good, but

The scene with Skulljiger's son was so stupid. Who cares if the POS is a father? He should of whispered in his ear how he'll kill his boy next as he slits his throat. Not try to make peace, think I'm done.

More More More!!!

Keep writing this story!!! and Keep using John Lee, his narration is excellent and could only imagine RC Bray doing this if John Lee gets laryngitis
Excellent story , well written and well read, keeps you wanting more!!

Growing Pains!

There is a delicious depth to this series, yes it's primarily about bloody violence as an incredibly diverse set of warriors (aside from the fact they are all male so far) fight for honour and life itself on the sands of the arena. And yes we follow the newly-formed House of Ten as they scramble madly to live up to their newly-earned status as a house in the games.

However, Blackmore has gone to real pains to give his world and story significant depth as we are plunged into a world of personal enmities, shady agents and devious house owners making this a very rich and fulfilling experience. There are some hints here that the story is slowing down a little but even so there is plenty of action scattered throughout and a gorgeously bloody and ruthless final hour or two. Blackmore's ruthless attitude to even some of his most prominent characters and the time he gives to those who only survive briefly on the sands imbues a genuine feeling of uncertainty every time we enter that gore-spattered arena.

I'm not sure how many books Blackmore intends to keep this going for and this does have its quieter moments but with that beautiful detail and constant uncertainty coupled with John Lee's immersive, full-cast narration this series could very well entertain for some time to come!

Second Book

This definitely wasn't as good as the first not enough action and leads into another book which I don't think I wanna get now.

Another good one

Another good narrating by John Lee.
The book has the same consistency as the first book so if you like that one you'll like this one.

Books 1-5 :(

I wish I hadn't bothered, but I did. they were OK, very drawn out and lacks any satisfying conclusion. nowhere near the same quality as the Mountain man series.

Best series I have listened too.

I'm now on my 3rd listen of this series, and it's honestly my favourite. The story is fantastic, but Mr Lee's narration makes it. Perfect.

Simply Excellent!

What a great series of books! I discovered these books after listening to the author's Mountain Man series - those book are great, but this gladiator series is just so much better! You can't help being drawn into the individual characters' story archs and their plans. The gory arena fight scenes and the build-ups to the fights are done so well. John Lee also does an admirable job with the narration - such good accents. Listened to all 5 books in less than two weeks. I really hope the author continues with this series!

slow going

slow going and a lot of jumping around with characters. some arcs seem left unfinished but still good book

Ordered it in error!

Ordered in error but.... continued to listen. I remembered listening to the first chapter of book 1 before returning it. I should have done it with this book, but I persevered. While it has moments that are reasonable, the repetition is irritating. After thinking about it one of the main problems is none of the characters is remotely likeable, you want o give each and everyone a good hard slap. While Mountain Man Gus was a hero all of them in this tale are pretty much zeros and for me, that's one of the many problems with the tale, unlikable characters that you don't give a hoot about.
John Lee does a reasonable job but in the end its the story that lets it down as it just has nowhere to go but repeat itself.

Gripping action

Book one was fantastic..book two has even more action,humor & sad in places..ithe way John Lee narrates is brilliant as he has the knack of changing his voice for the characters..I feel i was there with them..book three is going to be just as good of not better..roll on March 13 when it's released